Ah-nold was the poor imitation of Conan.
Pah, where would Conan be without Arnold?
You apparently don't realize that Conan was popular and well-known before Ah-nold was even
born.
Mr. The Barbarian made his debut in 1932. I know the character chiefly from the excellent comic book series that began in the 70s. He's like Sherlock Holmes, a very flexible character who has been worked and reworked over the decades, becoming richer and more fascinating over time.
Done correctly,
Conan should be a lot like
LOTR, a fully-fledged believable alternate reality, with resonances of Earth culture (with
Conan encompassing much more world culture than insular
LOTR) and of course a whooooole lot more sex and violence. If you'd only seen the movies, you might not realize that Conan has an actual personality. He's not just some hulking monosyllabic brute. He's intelligent and funny, and has his own sense of morality and personal honor that stands in stark contrast to the dissolute "civilized" world. In particular, he finds magic repugnant, probably because it's dishonorable and "cheating," and also a nuisance that he can't hack up with an axe.
In light of that, the movies from the 80s are a big disappointment that don't even come close to capturing the full scale of what the story deserves. Maybe this version won't either, but I'm hoping they will.
In fact, I'm already hoping for a sequel, and a return of a character even better than Conan: Red Sonja (who was largely created by the comic series). But this time, please cast an actual actress in the role. Jennifer Lawrence wouldn't be a bad idea.
(As I found out when, silly me, I tried to find info for this thread by googling "Conan" by itself.)
